US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin deemed Saturday "essential" to renew dialogue with China to avoid "misunderstandings" that could lead to a conflict between the two military powers who are struggling to normalize their relations.
Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu briefly greeted each other for the first time at the opening dinner of the Shangri-La Defense Dialogue Conference in Singapore.
Despite a token handshake, Mr Austin said he wished he had had a more "substantial" exchange with Li Shangfu.
According to the Pentagon, Beijing rejected a proposal for a formal meeting in Singapore, with Beijing saying the United States was "clearly aware of why there are currently military communication difficulties between China and the United States" without giving further details.
The revival of relations between the two powers stalled at the start of the year after a Chinese balloon flew over American territory. And despite the American promise of a "thaw", the two countries continue to cross swords on the issues of Taiwan, Chinese territorial claims in the China Sea or even the strategic microchip issue.
"The United States believes that open lines of communication with the People's Republic of China are essential, especially between our military and defense officials," Lloyd Austin said in his address to the conference.
"The more we talk, the more we can avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments that could lead to crisis or conflict," Austin added.
Li Shangfu, who became defense minister in March, was sanctioned by the US government in 2018 for buying Russian weapons. But the Pentagon says that does not prevent Mr. Austin from having a formal dialogue with him.
"A cordial handshake over dinner is no substitute for a substantial commitment," the US minister lamented at the conference.
However, the channels of communication between the two military powers do not seem to be completely closed. Witness the revelation made Friday on the visit of the director of the CIA, William Burns, to Beijing in May to meet his counterparts there.
Lloyd Austin is on a tour of Asia which has already taken him to Japan and which will also include a visit to India. This trip is part of Washington's efforts to strengthen its alliances and partnerships in the region in the face of the rise of China.
In Singapore, the Chinese delegation reacted quickly to the speech of Mr. Austin, the superior colonel Tang Hefei, spokesman of the Chinese ministry of Defense, affirming that the head of the Pentagon had "launched several false accusations".
Chinese Army Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo, meanwhile, urged Washington to stop telling China what to do.
"What we do in the Chinese military is based on upholding China's core security interests, which is fundamental," he told reporters.
Zhao Xiaozhuo also stressed that the lifting of US sanctions was "one of the prerequisites for substantial discussions" with Mr. Austin.
In addition, the American minister said he was "deeply concerned by the fact that (China) has not wished to engage more seriously in improving the mechanisms for managing crises between our two armies", adding that he hoped that Beijing changes its mind.
He also criticized China for carrying out "an alarming number of risky interceptions of American and allied aircraft flying legally in international airspace", echoing in particular a recent incident in the South China Sea between a Chinese fighter plane and an American aircraft.
A Chinese fighter pilot made an "unwarranted aggressive maneuver" last week near a US reconnaissance aircraft flying over the South China Sea, US military officials said.
Video images released on May 30 by the US military showed the Chinese plane passing in front of an American aircraft, which can be seen shaken by the turbulence resulting from this passage.
From the perspective of a Chinese military spokesman, the US plane "deliberately burst" into a training area in China "to carry out reconnaissance".
Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, China has viewed Taiwan as a province that it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory, and Beijing aims for such reunification by force if necessary.
While relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated further in recent years, China has stepped up military incursions around the island.
In April, the Chinese army organized major military maneuvers which simulated an encirclement of the island for three days, carried out in retaliation for stopovers a few days earlier by the Taiwanese president in the United States.
03/06/2023 11:03:04 - Singapore (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
